Modeling Red Blood Cell Viscosity Contrast Using Inner Soft Particle Suspension

Abstract

The inner viscosity of a biological red blood cell is about five times larger than the viscosity of the blood plasma. In this work, we use dissipative particles to enable the proper viscosity contrast in a mesh-based red blood cell model. Each soft particle represents a coarse-grained virtual cluster of hemoglobin proteins contained in the cytosol of the red blood cell. The particle interactions are governed by conservative and dissipative forces. The conservative forces have purely repulsive character, whereas the dissipative forces depend on the relative velocity between the particles. We design two computational experiments that mimic the classical viscometers. With these experiments we study the effects of particle suspension parameters on the inner cell viscosity and provide parameter sets that result in the correct viscosity contrast. The results are validated with both static and dynamic biological experiment, showing an improvement in the accuracy of the original model without major increase in computational complexity.

Gravitational effect on the cell in bio-fluid suspension

“…2(A) ). These measurements are then compared to the findings of Bohiniková et al, Fedosov et al, and Suresh et al [33,35,36]. The present simulation agrees with the…”

“…al., Fedosov et al, and Suresh et al[33,35,36]. The present simulation agrees with the experimental result and the 3D simulations.…”

“…(A) Axial and transverse diameter of the RBC when deformed with external stretch force, Current (blue circle) compared to Suresh et al, [35] experimental test, Bohiniková et al, [36] and Fedosov et al ‘s [33] 3D simulation results. (B) Shapes produced at specific force intervals in the optical tweezer test closely resemble Zhang and Liu’s optical tweezer test [37].…”

Modeling cell clusters and their near-wall dynamics in shear flow

“…In our model, the cell contains a suspension of dissipative inner particles with radii 0.5 μm in order to represent the viscosity contrast between the inner and outer cell environments. The effective viscosity of the inner particle suspension achieved via DPD interactions, per our previous work [9], is ∼ 4.5 mPas, with the outer fluid viscosity being 1.5 mPas and density 1000 kg/m 3 .…”

Red blood cells tracking and cell-free layer formation in a microchannel with hyperbolic contraction: A CFD model validation

“…Blood flow in capillaries [37] where vascular branching occurs also affects changes in the shape of the erythrocytes [38] . In the literature, publications can present numerical models of particle deformation that present simulations of single-particle behavior [39,40] . Although particle deformation models are available, they are computationally expensive, especially in flows where a large number of particles are present.…”